Some answers from WSU
COUGARS
It is less than a month until football's letter-of-intent day, so it's no wonder there were a couple recruiting questions on the blog yesterday. We don't have all the answers but we can add a few things, so read on.
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• Washington State: We'll get the easy football recruiting question out of the way. No. That's the answer to someone's question about whether I would be covering the visit from four Grant High players this month. In fact, the school has to, under NCAA rules, actively work to keep recruits away from the media. Last spring I talked with one high school recruit who had already signed a letter of intent. He was at a spring scrimmage, he was someone I've known for years and that still turned out to be a minor NCAA violation. Who knew? So we'll leave the recruiting headlines to Cougfan, which does a great job of working through the players and the high schools. ... Speaking of recruiting, there is this in-depth piece on the WSU Football Blog. While most of its really good, some information that's been out there, and repeated in this piece, is not etched in stone yet. For example, linebacker Daryl Monroe intends to enroll in WSU early and start classes next week, but, as of Tuesday, whether he'll be able to accomplish that is still up in the air. In cases like this, intentions are great, but, as Yogi might say, nothing is for sure until it's for sure. ... Someone also asked about basketball recruiting and whether coach Ken Bone was recruiting any bigs. Back in the November early period the Cougars signed 6-foot-8, 225-pound power forward Greg Sequele from the Los Angeles area, one of two players (guard Davonte Lacy from Tacoma was the other) they signed in the period. Remember, the Cougars have no seniors this year, though the scholarship formerly held by James Watson is available for next season. As for down the road, WSU is of course looking for size. Isn't everyone? ... Oregon State and Oregon come to town this week and Ryan Collingwood does a Q&A with an OSU beat writer. ... We'll have some news this afternoon on WSU, mainly looking at how important this weekend is to the Cougars. As for practice, they are working on fine-tuning some of the little things that deteriorated during the road trip. Power forward Abe Lodwick sat out Tuesday with a sore left foot and is day-to-day, but is expected to play this weekend (he was moving well). Faisal Aden also sat out the last part of practice after dinging his right leg. ... OSU wants to make life on the court difficult for Klay Thompson. But really, who doesn't? There is one line in Paul Buker's blog post that's really interesting, about making Thompson go to his right. Last season, Thompson struggled to finish with his left hand. Now it seems the scouting report indicates it's his best side.
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• Around the Pac-10: Bud Withers wants to know if anyone can hang with Washington this season. My guess is no, but it's just a guess. ... No one seems to be able to hang with Oregon State's Jared Cunningham when he goes up either. ... Point guard play is always crucial in college basketball. Three teams in the Pac-10 are wondering about theirs right now. ... The Ducks have a couple players nursing injuries right now. ... UCLA's Lazeric Jones continues to heal and shoot better. ... On the football side of things, Stanford comes home to a warm welcome but there are questions about the future. ... Oregon's football program seems to be more SEC-lite than Pac-10-like but that is drawing fans to the Ducks from the South.
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• That's all for this morning. As we said, we'll be back this afternoon with our items for tomorrow's newspaper. Until then ...
